Winemaker Notes
Year in and year out, this wine astounds with its beautiful cherry fruit seasoned with some earth and spice. Firm, ripe tannins back up the voluptuous fruit to make for a delicious wine that drinks well young, but will age with the best that Burgundy has to offer. After a few years in the bottle, it will begin to pinoter, or act like Pinot Noir. From this point on, notes of leather and mushrooms will enhance the cherry qualities to make for a marvelous "burgundian" experience.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Very rooty and mineral with just a touch of oak, this belongs on the dark side of the Morgon spectrum, but there’s also terrific blackberry fruit, the interplay making this stand out. Great structure and concentration on the medium- to full-bodied palate, then a long, really complete, moderately dry finish. Still a bit closed, but that’s typical for a young Cote du Py. Drinkable now but best from 2026.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2023 Morgon Côte du Py reveals cool-toned aromas of blue and blackberries, complemented by hints of licorice and vanilla. On the full-bodied palate, tangy fruit unfolds with a velour texture, supported by chalky tannins and culminating with a finish marked by a deeper graphite tone.
Delightfully playful, but also capable of impressive gravitas, Gamay is responsible for juicy, berry-packed wines. From Beaujolais, Gamay generally has three classes: Beaujolais Nouveau, a decidedly young, fruit-driven wine, Beaujolais Villages and Cru Beaujolais. The Villages and Crus are highly ranked grape growing communes whose wines are capable of improving with age whereas Nouveau, released two months after harvest, is intended for immediate consumption. Somm Secret—The ten different Crus have their own distinct personalities—Fleurie is delicate and floral, Côte de Brouilly is concentrated and elegant and Morgon is structured and age-worthy.
The bucolic region often identified as the southern part of Burgundy, Beaujolais actually doesn’t have a whole lot in common with the rest of the region in terms of climate, soil types and grape varieties. Beaujolais achieves its own identity with variations on style of one grape, Gamay.
Gamay was actually grown throughout all of Burgundy until 1395 when the Duke of Burgundy banished it south, making room for Pinot Noir to inhabit all of the “superior” hillsides of Burgundy proper. This was good news for Gamay as it produces a much better wine in the granitic soils of Beaujolais, compared with the limestone escarpments of the Côte d’Or.
Four styles of Beaujolais wines exist. The simplest, and one that has regrettably given the region a subpar reputation, is Beaujolais Nouveau. This is the Beaujolais wine that is made using carbonic maceration (a quick fermentation that results in sweet aromas) and is released on the third Thursday of November in the same year as harvest. It's meant to drink young and is flirty, fruity and fun. The rest of Beaujolais is where the serious wines are found. Aside from the wines simply labelled, Beaujolais, there are the Beaujolais-Villages wines, which must come from the hilly northern part of the region, and offer reasonable values with some gems among them. The superior sections are the cru vineyards coming from ten distinct communes: St-Amour, Juliénas, Chénas, Moulin-à-Vent, Fleurie, Chiroubles, Morgon, Regnié, Brouilly, and Côte de Brouilly. Any cru Beajolais will have its commune name prominent on the label.